Astra sinks Advent's US$7.6b buyout of Biotech

[BOSTON] Private equity firm Advent International and Singapore wealth fund GIC abandoned their US$7.6 billion bid to buy drugmaker Swedish Orphan Biovitrum after too few shareholders accepted the offer.

The bidders had made the bid conditional on getting 90 per cent of Sobi's shares and shareholders only tendered 87 per cent, they said in a statement Friday. Sobi's hemophilia business is facing price pressure and the company has accumulated debt after a number of acquisitions. They bid was 235 kronor (S$35.3) in cash for each share. The shares closed 0.3 per cent higher at 226.60 kronor Thursday.

AstraZeneca, which got an 8.1 per cent stake in Sobi as part of a drug alliance formed in 2019, never commented publicly on the offer.

BLOOMBERG